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Les Miserables to be performed at the Amato Center
By Janine Leffler


Get ready to go back in time to the French Revolution as the Riverbend Youth Company performs the popular musical Les Miserables.
All productions have their shares of challenges and joys. Mike Martin, a junior at Bedford High School makes his Riverbend debut with Les Miserables. He expressed, “The characters in this show have a lot more depth to them and are multi-dimensional.” When speaking about portraying his character, Marius, Martin says, “The thing that is most interesting about Marius is that he is not as easy to relate to as other characters I have played in other shows.” Rachel Taylor and Annie Feraco shared similar sentiments that the biggest fulfillment of the process of the production, is the depth and the emotion that the show has.
When it comes to character development, Patrick McKnight was able to make a connection between his current role, Emjorlas and his most recent role as Tommy Diljas in the PTA production of The Music Man, “In this show I play a character who is trying to lead a revolution but not really sure of how to do it but still tries to. The comparison I can draw between my character and Tommy Diljas from The Music Man is that they’re both really young and trying to go against the system and not sure of how to do it.” When comes to character development Mcknight said “Some people have rituals to get into character. I think of emotions and actions that my characters feels. I don’t feel I’ve become the character until I get on stage.”
Aly McKnight shares the role of Epione with Emily Butler. When asked about developing her character McKnight says, “I parallel situations she is in to situations in my own life.” She then went on to say that the biggest challenge of playing her character is that she is multi-dimensional, “One minute she is a romantic, flirtatious and in love with Marius and the next minute she is angry and involved with her parent’s gang. If you walked up to her on the street you wouldn’t necessarily expect her to be nice.” McKnight continued by saying that the most fulfilling part of her character is the songs that she sings, “ Little Fall of Rain and On My Own are beautiful pieces of music.”
Lucas Nevrla who plays the innkeeper says the most challenging part of playing his character is “the level of nastiness he has to portray but in the end it is the most rewarding part.”
One thing that sets Les Miserables apart from most other shows is the fact that the lines are sung and not spoken. Some methods for line memorization include watching video clips on youtube or listening to the soundtrack repeatedly until they get their part nailed down. Matt Campbell, an 8th grader at Amherst Middle School finds it equally helpful to play the portions of his songs on his guitar.

Les Miserables was performed in 2006 as part of Riverbend’s inaugural season. Performing in the show has been a familiar experience for Souhegan seniors Amy Butenhof and Aly McKnight. Looking back on the 2006 performances, Butenhof says, “ We were just starting out and trying to recruit people and get costumes and props together. This production is a lot more structured.” Butenhof continued by saying “ It’s really fun to be able to do this show again.” McKnight shared similar sentiments. “This is a nice show to end my career with Riverbend with not only because it was also the first show that I did but because of all the memories I have made at Riverbend over the past years.” For Butenhof, McKnight and fellow senior Lucas Nevrla their last show with Riverbend serves as a bittersweet experience. While they will miss all the fun times and great memories with Riverbend they look forward to the next chapter of their lives with great promise. Lucas added “The most fulfilling part of working on this show was not only getting to work with the cast but also working with John Sefel, a director who I haven’t worked with before. I plan on coming back to see all the performances next year.”

You won’t want to miss Les Miserables. Performances are at 7:30 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday May 12th 13th and 14th and 2pm on Sunday, May 15th at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts 56 Mont Vernon Street Milford NH. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for students and seniors.